66 Essential British Films To Take Your Mind Off The World Cup

25. The Devils (1971)

Ken Russell's highly controversial take on Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudon still retains its ability to shock the viewer nearly forty years after it was first released. In a career laden with stark idiosyncratic imagery, The Devils is Russell's finest artistic accomplishment, due in no small part to the sumptuous production design by the late Derek Jarman, who would owe his own directorial career to recognition of his work on The Devils.

24. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

The 1975 adaptation of Richard O'Brien's stage musical is one of those Marmite films: loved and hated in equal measure. Rocky Horror has its critics but it is near faultless in its execution and can still be praised for its treatment of transgressive themes in the joyously upbeat context of the musical. Also noteworthy for being a loving homage to Universal's monster cycle and 50's B-Movies, we will no doubt never see the like of Rocky Horror again. For that reason it should be embraced and cherished. The "Time Warp" tends to annoy and put a lot of folks off but do not let your feelings on that song deter you. Rocky Horror is packed to the brim with memorable songs, fantastic performances (notably from Tim Curry) and endures as a worthy and beloved cult classic.

23. Scum (1979)

Alan Clarke remade his examination of the British Borstal system for cinemas after his original "made for TV" version was imposed with a ban by the BBC. The original was eventually screened in 1991 and can be viewed as an extra on later DVD releases of Scum. It remains a hard hitting piece but most people will be more familiar with the 1979 version, which is unflinching in showing the horror and brutality of Borstal life. Scum is almost a montage of scenes and lines of dialogue that once seen will stay with you forever, and no analysis of British social-realism in cinema could exclude it.